Ten Steps
by The Brilliant Dance
Summary: A serial killer with mysterious powers has struck in Domino City and it appears that Yugi Mutou and Seto Kaiba are their next targets. Will the Pharaoh and Seto Kaiba be able to stop this new evil? Or will rivalry get in the way of their safety?
1. Chapter 1: Murder!

CHAPTER ONE: Murder

Rain pounded relentlessly against the window of the Domino City Game Shop with such force that Yugi Mutou was almost certain that the glass was going to crack. It had been pouring for at least three days, which wasn't the best of luck, as summer vacation had just started. The tempest – for, to the fifteen year old boy, it felt like a storm so epic that even Shakespeare couldn't properly describe it – had washed ashore from a leftover hurricane far out in the ocean. (Personally, Yugi was just thankful they were getting the leftovers.)

Until the massive storm decided to move on from the shores of Japan, Yugi was stuck inside behind the desk of the Game Shop. His grandfather had recently been bedridden with a nasty cold, which left it up to Yugi to mind the store. The teenager didn't really mind; after all, it was raining cats and dogs outside, and there wasn't really much to do otherwise in town for the King of Games.

Domino City had been eerily quiet since the end of the Battle City tournament.

Yugi sighed, turning the pages of a magazine that he was supposed to be selling, relishing the normalcy and peacefulness of the moment. It's not that he _minded_ the tournaments – he loved them! – but it was nice to take a few days and not have to worry about ancient Egyptian forces, Millennium Items, or a dark power coming after him with a maniacal laugh and Duel Monsters that looked _too_ real for comfort.

For the first time in a long time, Yugi Mutou felt like life had returned to a thing of normalcy. What could be more average than minding a game shop in the middle of a thunderstorm? Yes, this was a nice reprieve from the hell that he had had to endure just a few weeks ago…and yet, Malik's words constantly nagged the boy from the very dark recesses of his mind.

_You need all seven Millennium Items in order to lay the Pharaoh to rest and restore his full memory._

Yugi could still see the fellow teenager smiling a little ruefully as he spoke the words, baring the horrendous scarring on his back, revealing the secrets of the Pharaoh's past once and for all… and yet, the Pharaoh residing inside the Millennium Item that Yugi Mutou had been fortunate (or unfortunate?) enough to receive was still shrouded in mystery.

Yugi glanced over his shoulder to find the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle just behind him, looking out the window intently with hardened violet eyes. In the three years that Yugi Mutou had known the spirit, they had had an unusual relationship. For a good year, Yugi was positively terrified of the mysterious force that dwelled inside the equally mysterious Millennium Puzzle. However, since that night (a night just as rainy as the day they were now facing, come to think of it), the spirit and the teenager had forged a powerful bond.

The one complaint Yugi had about the spirit – now one of his best friends – was that he was always so _intense_. There was next to no nonsense when it came to the Nameless Pharaoh of the Millennium Puzzle; it was this or that, no in between.

Now that Battle City was over, the spirit (which Yugi called 'Yami' out of a lack of anything to really call him) was back to being restless, insolent, and impatient. Yugi couldn't really blame him; the answers the Egyptian Gods had given them hadn't been of much use, other than to give them more clues to piece together. Until they figured out how to do that, they had no choice but to wait for another clue to fall into their laps. The Ishtar family had done all they could for the teenager and his spirit partner; now, all they had to do was wait.

"Busy?" Yugi asked, grinning slightly at the spirit, who looked over in mild surprise.

"Busy? When am I ever busy, Yugi? I am attached to you." Yami smiled and straightened his posture; he had been "leaning" against a card display (or, at least, appeared to be leaning against one; Yugi wasn't entirely sure the spirit could manage it without falling straight through).

"Yeah, I know," Yugi sighed, closing the magazine so he could talk to his spiritual friend. "This weather is _awful_. Jounouchi is supposed to be coming over sometime today, I think, so at least that'll give us something to do."

"I suppose we should be thankful for the lull in activity," Yami mused, glancing over his shoulder towards the door before shaking his head slightly with a smile. "It's been raining for going on three days, hasn't it?" the Pharaoh asked, crossing his arms. "Amazing the city hasn't flooded."

"Yeah, I know, right?" The teenager glanced up as something soft hit the door; the daily newspaper had arrived. "Better get that before it turns into mush…" Yugi slid off of the stool and stretched as soon as his feet hit the floor. "I didn't think the clouds had this much rain in them." The teenager pushed open the door and cringed as the cold rain immediately pounded against his face. He stooped to his knees to grab at the plastic wrapped newspaper and slammed the door shut before the monsoon managed to make its way inside.

"Maybe the land needed the rain," Yami suggested, watching Yugi shed his coat (which was now sopping wet) to hang up. "At any rate, it cannot last too much longer. It's just a rain storm." The Pharaoh paused before snorting softly to himself. "We're talking about the weather, Yugi, we must be bored."

"Seriously," Yugi agreed, dropping back down into his seat to unroll the paper out of curiosity. "Maybe there's something going on at the museum today. That'd be fun, right? I don't think we're getting any customers today, Grandpa won't mind if we run out to go do _something_…"

"I've had enough of the damned museum," Yami muttered under his breath, but he looked over his partner's shoulder out of curiosity despite his statement. The spirit's eyes widened as he took in the front page of the _Domino City Times_. "Aibou – look!"

Yugi looked to where the Pharaoh was pointing and gasped. The headline took up a good chunk of the front page with large bold print that made the story impossible to miss.

"Curator of Domino City Museum found dead." Yugi's finger trailed underneath the large black letters, his violet eyes widening in shock. "The curator…"

"Ishizu Ishtar?" Yami murmured, reading Yugi's horrified thought. The spirit gestured at Yugi to unfold the paper fully so they could read more. "Impossible, she returned to Egypt with Malik and Rishid…"

"I don't think she was the curator, Yami, I think she just went to Domino to tell you about your past," Yugi responded quietly, swallowing slightly. "Hopefully, anyway…here it is – the curator of the Domino City Museum, Yamada Hanako, was found dead in the Ancient Egyptian exhibit early this morning. The body was found within the new exhibit hall that Ishizu Ishtar, famed archaeologist from Cairo, Egypt, sponsored. Her assailant, if there is one, remains unknown…" Yugi looked up at Yami, who was staring intently at the black and white picture that contained the giant stone tablets that had changed both of their lives forever.

"She was found within that exhibit?"

"I guess so."

"A coincidence?" Yami narrowed his eyes, reading the rest of the article quickly before Yugi could protest. "I thought Ishizu took those things back to Egypt with her. Are they a permanent fixture?"

Yugi folded up the newspaper neatly and set it on top of the counter, frowning down at the photograph of the tablets. "I don't think so. I guess they haven't moved those back to Egypt yet… I wonder why someone would want to kill a museum curator."

Yami shrugged. "Why would someone want to kill another person over a puzzle?" Yami flashed a grin at Yugi's extraordinarily flat look before vanishing at the sound of a door opening upstairs. _It's a valid point, aibou_, Yami's voice echoed inside Yugi's head as his grandfather called downstairs to ask who he was talking to. _There are some insane people in this world… and I'm afraid we've only just scratched the top of the surface!_

_

* * *

  
_

The rain that had kept the majority of Domino City inside for three days vanished as abruptly as it had arrived. The next morning provided weather that was as bright as a clear summer day, leaving no indication that there had been any rain whatsoever, save for the massive puddles that refused to evaporate without a fight.

The curator's mysterious death hadn't gone unnoticed, either. Everyone in the city was buzzing about it, mainly because it was so _bizarre_. According to a leaked police report (that the Domino City Times refused to acknowledge whether or not they had actually leaked it), the body of Yamado Hanako was free of any mark. There were no abrasions, no gunshots, and no knife wounds. She didn't suffer a heart attack, a stroke, or any other freak biological phenomenon. If she hadn't been dead, you would've expected her to get up and continue her conversation about ancient Egyptian artifacts with you at any second.

The only clue Yamado Hanako left behind in the world of the living was an expression of pure unadulterated horror etched onto her face. The press jokingly said she had died of fright, which the family took great offense to.

Apparently, Yamado Hanako was an extremely brave soul.

Regardless of whether or not people agreed with the tactics the press were taking, most everyone in the city was fascinated with the case, including the local students at the Domino City High School. Most of the upperclassmen talked about in great detail, each story of the death as unlikely as the last.

Some of the students, though, didn't really care, including Yugi Mutou.

"I just don't see why people are making such a big deal out of it," Yugi Mutou sighed as he stepped out of the high school with his close friends, hooking his thumbs underneath the straps of his backpack. "I mean, what if she just, y'know, died? I feel bad for her family." He fell in step next to Anzu Masaki, who nodded in agreement.

"You're right. They should just leave the poor people alone," Anzu sighed, brushing her brown hair out of her eyes. "It's bad enough that the poor woman died, and now all these people are hounding her family?"

"It's pretty interesting, though," Jounouchi Katsuya replied, unfolding that day's newspaper to read while they walked down the streets. "I mean, don't you think that's pretty weird? Just being found dead…" The blonde shuddered. "It gives me the creeps!"

"Everything gives you the creeps, Jounouchi," Honda Hiroto responded, rolling his eyes as the group of four rounded the corner to head towards Yugi's Game Shop, their customary hang-out spot. "Raw meat gives you the creeps, losing card games, Blue Eyes White Dragons—"

"Shut it, Honda!" Jounouchi rolled up the newspaper and swung it at his friend's head, scowling as Honda ducked it just in time. "I'm not afraid of any stupid dragons, you hear me? Kaiba can walk in here right now and I'll—"

"I don't think Kaiba is going to be visiting anytime soon, boys," Anzu interrupted, grinning a little as Honda and Jounouchi glared at one another. "No need to worry about any rogue dragons crashing through the doors, I promise."

Yugi laughed, ducking underneath Jounouchi's arm to jog to the door of the Game Shop. "I think Kaiba has more important things on his mind than finding all of us for a duel, don't you? I heard he was in America."

"What's he got to do in America?" Jounouchi asked, temporarily distracted from the urge to beat the snot out of Honda. "Is he expanding Kaiba Corp? Like the world really needs more of Kaiba's influence…"

"I think he's building a theme park," Yugi responded with a smile, pushing open the door of the Game Shop. "It's what he's always..." Yugi ended his sentence with a sharp gasp, as when he opened the door of his grandfather's store, he was greeted with the place being in absolute shambles. Posters were ripped from walls and the card display was smashed through. The carnage seemed to continue into the living quarters of the store, with a couch cushion torn open just behind the game counter and Yugi's bed sheets strewn over the stairs.

"What the hell?" Jounouchi demanded, stepping inside, careful not to step on any of the upended merchandise. "This place was fine when we picked you up this morning, Yugi!"

Yugi said nothing, hurrying into the Game Shop to go up the stairs to check to see what had been disturbed upstairs. To his astonishment, his grandfather's bedroom was relatively untouched, but his room was a total disaster. Books were ripped from the shelves and scattered around the floor. Unused duel monsters cards were strewn haphazardly all over the place. The curtains from his window were shredded to pieces and lying in a heap on the floor.

"Is anything missing, Yugi?"

Yugi spun on his heel to find the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle sitting on his bed, his arms folded and legs crossed. "I don't know," Yugi replied, turning back to look at the disaster that was once his room. "I don't know which way is up, everything is a disaster…"

"Think, Yugi," Yami commanded, the epitome of calm, cool, and collected. The spirit rose to his feet and crossed the room to his partner's side, scanning the hurricane of clothes and bed sheets. "What items of value would a burglar want that you have, but your grandfather doesn't?"

Yugi stared at him blankly for a few seconds before curling his fingers around the chain holding his Millennium Puzzle. It was the only value of real worth (next to anything in his Duel Monsters deck) that the teenager owned. "But I always have the Puzzle with me, you know that," he said. "Why would they tear apart my room?"

"Perhaps they did not know you always carry it with you. Have you looked at your desk?" The spirit gestured just over the shoulder of the teenager, his eyes narrowed. "I think you'll find your answers there."

Yugi blinked and turned to his desk. He stared intently at it for a few moments, trying to remember exactly what was on the desk before he inhaled sharply. The golden box that he had kept the unfinished Millennium Puzzle in was missing, along with a picture Yugi kept of himself and his three friends.

"The burglar probably assumed that you kept the Millennium Puzzle locked away in a safe spot rather than carry it around, which means the person knew what an item of value it is." Yami glanced towards the door to make sure no one was going to come into the room to see the spirit out and about, but Yugi's friends were still downstairs sorting through the destruction. "But the picture… that is a mystery even to me."

"Maybe to know what I looked like," Yugi responded weakly, sitting down on the bed. "But after Battle City, _everyone_ in this city knows what I look like! How could someone not know I have this thing with me everywhere I go?"

"Perhaps they aren't from around here. You give the criminal mind too much credit."

"But they knew enough to know that I was the one who had it, right?" Yugi retorted. "Maybe they just wanted the box… I guess it's valuable enough. It's made out of gold, I think."

"And leave behind all of the electronic equipment in your living room? And to leave your grandfather's room untouched except for an open door?" Yami shook his head slightly. "No… they wanted that box specifically, and they knew it was in your room."

The teenager pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling a familiar pressure building in his sinus cavity. He was beginning to get a headache. "Grandpa isn't going to be home until later tonight," the boy said finally, looking out the window almost tiredly. "We need to call the police and—"

_BRRRRRING_.

Both the teenager and the spirit jumped and spun towards the abrupt noise, the Eye of Ra glowing on Yami's forehead and Yugi's hands up in a defensive stance. Both nearly burst out laughing when they identified the source of the shrill sound; it was nothing but the telephone.

_BRRRRRING_.

"We need to relax," Yami chuckled, gesturing at the phone with a free hand. "Answer it, then. It might be your grandfather."

_Or the person who tore this place apart…_ Yugi thought, grimacing slightly at the thought. Yami shook his head at the teenager and Yugi laughed nervously; he had forgotten Yami had every insight into his mind.

_BRRRRRING_.

"I'm being stupid, huh."

"A little," Yami admitted. "If you're that paranoid, just let the machine pick up." The spirit watched the phone ring one last time before the answering machine clicked. "See? No need to worry, Yugi."

_Kami Game Shop! Leave a message after the beep_. Yugi's cheerful voice echoed in the perfectly silent room. Though the spirit had poked fun at Yugi, the teenager could feel the spirit tense involuntarily.

There was a brief moment of silence before the caller spoke with a tone of disgust that both Yugi and Yami knew only too well.

"Yugi…" The caller stopped himself, as if forming the words was extraordinarily difficult. "I can't believe I'm doing this, but I need you to come to the corporation immediately. I… I need your help." The young man cleared his throat and coughed before continuing with a low growl. "I can't say anything over the phone. Just calling you is probably a stupid idea...but you need to see something. Hurry." The answering machine clicked as the young man hung up.

Yugi turned to the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle, who was looking at the answering machine with an expression of the utmost shock and disbelief. The Pharaoh was silent for a few more minutes before turning to Yugi, his violet eyes narrowed with sudden determination.

"Was that Kaiba?" Yugi asked, stunned. "Kaiba…was asking for _help_?"

In all the years Yugi had known the arrogant billionaire, Seto Kaiba had never asked anyone for help, much less the King of Games. He was proud and entirely self-sufficient; he believed he needed help from no one. For Seto Kaiba to ask help from his arch rival…Yugi didn't want to think of what trouble he had to have been in.

"We need to go to Kaiba Corporation." The spirit of the Millennium Puzzle apparently felt the same way Yugi did, as Yami abruptly vanished. The Millennium Puzzle felt warm against Yugi's chest as the spirit entered his soul room. _If he's asking us for help, he must be in trouble._

_But what about Jounouchi and the others?_ Yugi asked, thundering down the stairs and rushing past his friends without any explanation. For some reason, Yugi felt that Kaiba needed his help more desperately than his detached tone on the phone implied. The thought spurred him to race down the street faster than he had ever run before. _Maybe I should bring them?_

_I don't think Kaiba will want the extra intrusion_.

"Yugi!" Jounouchi yelled after his best friend, jumping over a fallen card display to skid to the front door. "Yugi, where the hell are you going?! We need to figure out what happened here!"

"I'll be back later!" Yugi yelled over his shoulder, waving without looking back. "Emergency! Call the police for me, will you?"

"_What_?" the blonde yelled after him, staring incredulously as his friend rounded the corner. "What emergency? Your shop just got torn up! And what about your grandpa? What do you want us to _do_?"

Though Jounouchi couldn't hear exactly what his best friend said, he thought (for the craziest moment) that the King of Games yelled back "I need to go to Kaiba Land!"

"Kaiba Land?" Jounouchi muttered, looking confused. "Yugi – now isn't the time for a card game, we've got things to figure out!"

But it was too late. Yugi Mutou was already gone.


	2. Chapter 2: The Warning

**NOTE**: Thank you all so much for reading/reviewing! :] Hopefully this chapter is a little more exciting than the last... the first chapter seemed like such a drag to write compared to this one. Perhaps because it didn't have my favorite character in it (bwaha)... anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

* * *

CHAPTER TWO: The Warning

Seto Kaiba slammed down the phone with such ferocity that the plastic device almost broke from the force. "Damn it," the teenager swore, his fingers trembling with a mixture of fear and anger as he reluctantly released the telephone from his iron grip.

Where was his _dignity? _One random event and he ran scared to Yugi Mutou…like a damned dog with his tail between his legs. He was no better than that idiot, Jounouchi Katsuya, using Yugi as a shield whenever something got tough…

The billionaire sank into his leather chair, kicking the trashcan underneath his desk to release some of his anger. The metal receptacle skidded across the room and rolled to a stop just by his office door, which was closed and bolted shut. "Damn it," Seto repeated, curling his fingers together into a fist as he rested his elbows on his desk. He leaned forward, kneading his forehead with his fingers, trying to break apart the migraine that had settled just behind his skull.

Seto Kaiba wasn't very easily rattled. He had seen a lot in his mere seventeen years of life; he had witnessed his adoptive father throw himself out a window no less than fifteen stories high when he was only fourteen, after all. He liked to consider himself tough, self-sufficient, and brilliant. With his technological genius and his savvy for business, he had accomplished what few other people in the world had; at the age of seventeen, Seto Kaiba didn't need to worry about a retirement package or his 401K.

Knowing these things, the teenager had accepted that with success comes sacrifice. He knew that he would quickly become a target for the less affluent or the extraordinarily desperate and the teenager had suffered the consequences; one casual glance at a picture of Pegasus was enough to make Seto have nightmares for weeks.

Nothing in Seto Kaiba's book of tricks had prepared him for this.

The teenager glanced at the clock in the bottom right corner of his flat-screen computer monitor. 3:56 PM. With any amount of luck, Yugi Mutou would be arriving at the Corporation any moment, if he chose to show up at all. Seto knew that if Yugi had given him the same exact message, he would be in no hurry to rush to his rival's aide… but Yugi had a good heart, a kind soul, and Seto Kaiba knew best how to exploit it.

A button on his phone beeped red. Seto smirked slightly despite the situation.

His bet had paid off.

He pressed the button with a single finger and said, "What, Isono?"

"Kaiba-sama, Yugi Mutou is here to see you." Isono sounded mildly surprised, and who could blame him? In all the years Isono had loyally served Seto and Mokuba Kaiba, Yugi Mutou had never exactly been on the approved guest list.

"I know. Send him up immediately."

"Kaiba-sama, the police will be here soon… do you think it best to invite Yugi here so… abruptly?"

"I said send him up, Isono." There was a fine edge to the teenager's tone; he was in no mood to be trifled with. The duelist released the button and cut Isono off mid-apology, closing his eyes to mentally prepare himself for what he was about to do. He heard a thunder of footsteps just down the hall and as the teenager opened his icy blue eyes, the doors to his office swung open with a bang.

"Kaiba?" Yugi Mutou panted, hurrying into the room and closing the doors behind him swiftly. "What's wrong? What's happened? Are you hurt?"

Seto narrowed his eyes slightly, taking in the fellow duelist's appearance. His clothes were disheveled, his chest was heaving, and the teenager was almost bent double to catch his breath. "Did you run here all the way from your shop?" Seto asked incredulously, standing up to get a closer look at his rival. "That's a decent mile. I'm impressed."

"You sounded like you needed help," Yugi panted, wiping the sweat from his forehead. The boy brushed his bangs from his eyes and smiled a little ruefully. "You never ask for help, Kaiba. I thought it was something important."

Seto smirked a little; Yugi Mutou knew him just as well as he thought. "I guess not," he admitted, crossing the room quickly. "I need you to follow me. We need to go to the lowest level of Kaiba Corporation."

"What did you mean in your message?" Yugi asked, following him without any hesitation down the hall. When Seto didn't answer, the teenager didn't press him, but looked around with great interest. He had never actually been inside Kaiba Corporation, only looked upon the monstrous building from the outside, and he was impressed. The floor was covered in a thick carpet and the walls were decorated with what Yugi assumed was extraordinarily expensive modern artwork. He didn't dare touch anything; Yugi had a nasty feeling that Seto would force him to pay for whatever he broke and then some.

The two duelists stopped at the far end of the hall, in front of a beautiful marble sculpture of Seto's favorite Duel Monster, the Blue Eyes White Dragon. The dragon's stone white wings were flared, his talons curled downward, and teeth bared into a ferocious growl. Yugi, despite the menacing appearance of the dragon, smiled up at the dragon; the Duel Monster was ready and waiting for a duel.

"Is this your favorite one?" Yugi asked, as the two duelists seemed to be lingering a bit longer than usual in front of the sculpture.

Seto suppressed a snide remark and chose to roll his eyes instead. He placed a hand on the nose of the Blue Eyes White Dragon and pressed down slightly. To Yugi's amazement, the dragon bowed its mighty head almost to the floor and split open into two halves, revealing a narrow staircase that vanished into darkness.

"Follow me," Seto ordered, vanishing into the dark stairwell without so much as a moment's hesitation.

Yugi followed quickly, afraid of losing the teenager in the shuffle. To Yugi's relief, the staircase was a curved one that only went in one direction; down. It took about fifteen minutes of steady walking until Seto stopped and stepped off of the very last step of the staircase. Each footstep the two duelists took echoed; the room was totally empty save for a dimly illuminated door at the far end of the room.

"Where are we?" Yugi whispered, stopping by Seto's side to take a look around the room. "The basement?"

"No." Seto reached out a hand and flipped a light switch. The room was abruptly illuminated to reveal that it wasn't really a room at all, but a narrow hallway. "It's a storage unit that only I use. Nobody else has the access to get inside, not even Mokuba. The dragon reads my palm print and opens." There was a moment of hesitation before Seto continued his walk down the narrow hall towards the door at the far end. "You'll understand why that's important in a few minutes."

Yugi nodded and followed Seto down the hall hurriedly. "Is this room why you called me over here?" Yugi asked hesitantly; it wasn't often that Seto Kaiba was so accommodating, and Yugi didn't want to push his luck.

Seto said nothing. Instead, the taller teenager strode down the hallway quickly, gesturing Yugi with a quick wave of his right hand. "Quickly. I want to show you this before the police arrive and force us to evacuate the building."

"_Evacuate_?" Yugi echoed, on Seto's heels, his violet eyes wider than usual. "Kaiba, if this is dangerous, we shouldn't really be here, should we?" When he didn't receive an answer, Yugi only hesitated a moment before persisting. "My grandfather's shop was ransacked before you called me, Kaiba, I'm worried—"

"It was?" Seto interrupted without looking down; the duelist was busy entering what appeared to be a long and complicated code into a slender keypad protruding from the wall. The teenager apparently had it memorized, because Yugi could see no numbers on the miniscule screen provided. "By whom?"

"I don't know," Yugi admitted. "But Kaiba, look, Battle City was only a few weeks ago, so if you got a threat or—"

"Do you really think I would invite you to my office over a threat against _me_?" Seto interrupted, looking down sharply at his rival. Yugi cringed; Seto's tone had abruptly turned from cautiously informal to an ice cold growl. "I'm not afraid of a stupid threat, Yugi. I can take care of myself. I called you here because this deals with you, not me." Seto curled his slender fingers around the metal handle of the door the two had arrived at; he seemed to hesitate a few moments before yanking the door open. "See for yourself."

Yugi shielded his eyes slightly, for the light in the room was much brighter than the one that had led them down the hallway. Once his eyes adjusted to the sudden change, he dropped his arm, blinking several times to take in the entire scene.

The King of Games immediately wished he hadn't.

The room was empty save for a safe in the center of the room, protected by yet another Blue Eyes White Dragon statue. Lying in front of the safe was a man contorted into an odd position, his fingers locked around the dragon's mighty talons. There was a large puddle of blood underneath the man, but it looked disturbed, as if someone had taken something and slashed through it to spread it around.

"Oh my god," Yugi gasped, feeling his breakfast rising in his throat as he turned away and coughed. "He's dead – Kaiba, is he dead?"

"I would assume so." Seto's tone was a mixture of impatience and amusement at Yugi's seemingly stupid question. "The human body only has so many liters of blood in it." The teenager paused. "His name was Taro. He was Yamado Hanako's husband, the curator that was killed in the museum."

"How do you know she was killed?" Yugi asked, looking up at the duelist with wide violet eyes. "There wasn't a mark on her, Kaiba!"

Seto simply pointed towards the far wall, which Yugi had not yet looked at in his haste to look away from the apparently murdered Yamado Taro. The shorter boy looked in the direction he was pointing and stared in absolutely horror.

He understood now what had disturbed the fallen Taro's blood.

The far white wall was covered in what appeared to be a deep red paint. It was messily done and splattered inconsistently, showing that someone was in a great hurry. But Yugi was not interested in the penmanship of the murderer, but what the message actually said.

_The hand that slays holds the key.  
_

"The hand that slays," Yugi read in a faint whisper, feeling his stomach drop to the very bottoms of his shoes. "What… is this a warning? What is going _on_?" The teenager looked over at Seto, who was fixated on the grisly message. "And what does this have to do with us?"

"You said your home was robbed, right?" Seto looked down at Yugi, his eyes narrowed. Yugi couldn't help but feel some amount of admiration for his fellow duelist; Seto was acting remarkably calm and collected despite the fact that he had found a dead body in his corporation only a few hours ago. "What did they take?"

"A picture of me and my friends, and… well, a box I used to keep the Millennium Puzzle in before I finished it." Yugi was silent for a few moments; he could almost feel Seto's gaze boring into the back of his head. "Please tell me you called the police," the boy mumbled weakly, turning away from the horrendous message and the dead body.

"Of course I did," Seto scoffed. "Did you honestly think I would keep a dead body hidden down here without telling the authorities, especially when his wife showed up dead a few days ago? I'm not an idiot."

"I never said you were, I just wanted – can we talk outside? I can't…" Yugi averted his eyes once more from Yamado Taro. The contorted form of the dead man was simply too much for the duelist to handle.

Seto rolled his eyes and stepped aside to allow Yugi entrance into the empty hallway. The billionaire quickly followed suit, shutting the door quickly behind him. "This isn't all, though."

Yugi looked up at Seto with a questioning expression. _What does he mean, that's not all? _Yugi thought, a feeling of dread seeping through his bones. _There's _more?

Seto dropped his hand into his pocket and pulled out a much worn piece of what appeared to be parchment. He extended his hand to Yugi, who took the parchment warily. "I figured it out. 'The hand that slays holds the key…' There was a knife in the guy's hand, but I kicked it away before I figured out he was dead. This piece of paper was wrapped around the handle."

Yugi grimaced and unfolded it. The parchment contained a message written in what appeared to be ink from a quill; the fancy calligraphy would have been admirable in a different circumstance.

_One thousand before, two thousand after_

_An event of the most heinous level_

_Seven in all, but only one survived thereafter_

_Look now at the mystery you've unraveled_

_Two have passed, eight to go._

_One and two created three, and three gave way to four._

_Can you figure it out, Pharaoh?_

_Or will you slay eight more?  
_

It only took a few more seconds for Yugi to realize what Seto Kaiba had handed him. He now understood why Seto had called him to the scene of the crime; this indeed had something to do with him…or, rather, the spirit residing within the Millennium Puzzle.

"Pharaoh," Yugi whispered, running his thumb underneath the word.

"I thought you might find that interesting." When Yugi didn't respond, Seto gave a noise of impatience. He had no time to deal with Yugi's incompetence. "But my question is—"

"A riddle," Yugi interrupted, staring at the parchment with a mixture of trepidation and curiosity. "One and two created three…" The teenager's brow furrowed in thought, running the line over in his mind. "Can you figure it out…or will you slay eight more?"

The mathematics of the line hit Yugi like a sack of bricks.

"Kaiba, this is a hit list!"

"A hit list," Seto repeated, not sounding convinced.

Yugi ignored the older boy's skeptical tone and continued to dismantle the riddle, squinting to read the slightly smudged ink on the parchment. "One and two, they've… that's got to be the Yamados! But one and two made three, and three gave way to four…" Yugi sighed, his momentary elation vanishing in an instant. "I haven't got a clue what that's supposed to mean."

"The _real_ question is why are people delivering messages to _you_ in _my_ building?" The tone of Seto's voice was clear; he didn't appreciate being used for such a horrific messaging system.

"I don't know," Yugi responded, shrugging helplessly. "I really… I don't know. I thought our biggest problems were over with Battle City, Kaiba. Malik and Ishizu told us all they could and they left for Egypt." Yugi looked down at the parchment once more, running his thumb over the word _Pharaoh_. "But… I guess you're right. This is for me. But _why_?"

"If it's for you, why is someone dumping bodies inside my building, inside a vault that no one can get into _but_ me?" Seto demanded, closing the door to the vault with a bit more force than necessary. Yugi cringed at the slam; the noise echoed in the empty hallway. "Don't you understand how this looks? _No one_ knows this vault exists, Yugi."

Yugi bit his lower lip. "I'm sorry, Kaiba, but I don't know what to tell you except to cooperate with the police."

"Cooperate?" Seto scowled and turned away from the duelist. "With what information, Yugi? I have absolutely no proof and—"

"What's in the safe?" Yugi interrupted before he could stop himself.

Seto turned towards the teenager with an expression of controlled anger. Yugi flinched, but stood his ground. "If you tell me what's in the safe, then I can vouch for you," Yugi suggested. "I don't think the police are going to think anything is suspicious if you tell them what's in the safe."

Seto's blue eyes didn't move away from the shorter teenager, but his lips pressed into a thin line. Yugi could tell he was testing their fragile friendship, but he stuck it out with a firm look.

"Personal objects of no worth to anyone but me," Seto answered finally, his voice low and guarded. "There would be no reason for anyone to break into this vault."

"But someone did," Yugi persisted.

"I can see that, Yugi, but I'm telling you, there is nothing in this vault of any value to anyone else but me." Seto crossed his arms, his metal gauntlets clinking softly together as they touched. "And no amount of pestering is going to make me confide in you."

Yugi knew a lost battle when he saw one, so he let the matter drop. It was really none of his business anyway; if Kaiba didn't feel like sharing what was in his own personal vault, Yugi could hardly see the sense in pressuring him. The spirit residing within him disagreed strongly; Yugi could feel Yami straining at the barrier between their soul rooms to take control and give Seto Kaiba a dose of his own medicine, but the boy resisted. What Seto needed right now was help, _not_ an argument with a 3,000 year old ghost.

"That same person might've broken into my Game Shop," Yugi said finally, curling his fingers around the chain of his Millennium Puzzle in thought. "This is the only real thing I have of value…but they took a picture and a box, instead of trying to find me at school or any other place…" Yugi looked down at the parchment, frowning at the menacing eight lined riddle. "But that's beside the point. According to this, we need to figure it out soon." He looked up at Seto, who was watching him with narrowed eyes. "Whoever this is, they're going to kill eight more people."

Seto opened his mouth to deliver what Yugi was sure was a scathing response concerning Yugi's use of the word 'we', but the noise of footsteps on the staircase above them caused both teenagers to look towards the door.

"I thought nobody could get into this room without your palm print," Yugi said quietly, his violet eyes rising to the ceiling. "D'you think that's the police?"

The billionaire cursed underneath this breath. "I left the entranceway open for Isono, dammit… do you have that riddle memorized?" he asked abruptly, turning towards Yugi.

"Memorized? I just got it, Kaiba, why—"

"Well, memorize it quickly." When Yugi stared at Seto as if he were insane, the elder teenager scoffed impatiently. "The police are going to ask what the riddle means and if I lie, the police are going to suspect I did something. Besides, they could analyze the parchment and ink and see where the thing came from."

Yugi nodded and dug through his pockets for a piece of paper. Using a pen that Seto provided (after much annoyed sighing and curt remarks), the King of Games quickly scribbled down the riddle on the back of a receipt from Otogi's game shop (his grandfather didn't know that Yugi still paid regular visits to his friend's massive game emporium) and shoved the copy into his pocket.

"Ready?" When Yugi nodded once more, Seto pulled his trench coat a little tighter to his body. For the first time in this entire ordeal, Yugi could see the teenager was visibly nervous, if only a little. "Then let's—"

The door at the end of the small hallway swung open before Seto could finish his sentence, revealing a group of people led by a rather petite woman. She stood only a few inches above Yugi, with light blue hair falling just below her shoulders. Her ice blue eyes scanned the small room quickly and coldly. While the woman didn't have a very large presence, Yugi immediately got the impression that this woman wasn't to be trifled with.

Seto Kaiba did not feel the same way.

"Who are you?" Seto asked shortly, his own blue eyes meeting the woman's with a glare. Yugi cringed; he didn't think Seto's no-nonsense tone was going to help in proving his innocence.

The woman, who apparently hadn't noticed the two teenagers in the room, looked up sharply at the sound of Seto's voice. Instead of an expression of surprise, the woman's lips twitched into a slight smirk, as if she had been expecting the extra company. "The infamous Seto Kaiba, I assume."

"You assume correctly."

"I see. Well, my name is Tamara Johnson." The woman strode forward, holding out her small hand in greeting to the brunette. "I'm a federal agent from the United States, but more locally, a close personal friend of Yamado Hanako. I offered my services to the Domino City police department and they took me up on it." Tamara looked Seto up and down, a slender eyebrow rising up in skepticism. "I thought the great Seto Kaiba was in the United States himself… why are you in Japan?"

"I live here," Seto responded shortly. Yugi's lips twitched into a slight smile at the curt response. "I think the better question is what are _you_ doing _here_, Miss Johnson. Your Japanese is decent for an American… if you would allow me to make another assumption… I would say you've been here before."

"As I said, Hanako was a close friend of mine." Agent Johnson glanced just behind Seto and Yugi to the now closed door concealing Yamado Taro's mutilated body. "The police were called here because you discovered a body, Seto?"

"I may be seventeen, but you are not my superior, Miss Johnson." Seto's voice was low and cold. "You're not on a first name basis with me. I'm sure you told her this, Isono." Seto glanced over the head of the petite American to see his right hand man, Isono, who was looking at Agent Johnson with an expression of frustration.

"I did, Kaiba-sama, but Agent Johnson insisted on—"

"This is a crime scene now, _Mr_ Kaiba, and it's no longer your corporation," Agent Johnson interrupted, locking eyes with Seto once more. The sarcastic emphasis was dripping from each and every syllable; it was clear to Yugi that Tamara Johnson didn't appreciate being treated like an inferior human being. "My officers will bring you and your friend to the police barracks. We'll want you both debriefed and interrogated to find out exactly what happened and how you discovered the body. Is that understood, _sir_?"

"We were just leaving," Yugi said quickly before Seto could read the federal agent the riot act. "Really, we were. Right, Kaiba?"

Seto glanced down at Yugi, his lip curling into a slight sneer; he didn't appreciate being interrupted. Yugi pasted on his best neutral smile in response.

"He isn't a friend," Seto said finally in a low growl. "Do whatever you want. Let's go, Yugi. Apparently my corporation is no longer private property."

"Right," Yugi responded weakly, suddenly feeling slightly out of place among federal agents and teenage super geniuses. He was halfway tempted to allow the Pharaoh to take over (as he was pretty sure Yami's confidence and self-assurance would impress the police officers far more than Yugi's stammering), but he something told him it wasn't such a great idea. Yami already felt annoyed and aggravated by the situation and adding him into the mixture was bound to be trouble. "After you, Kaiba."

Seto didn't respond, but instead swept past the small group of police officers, his trench coat billowing behind him. He paused in the now empty doorframe, tossing a cold glare over his shoulder at Agent Johnson and Yugi, who were both still standing in the center of the hallway. "Don't touch anything without my consent," the billionaire said curtly. "I'll know if you do." He jerked his head slightly to Yugi, who immediately followed after him. With that final declaration, the two duelists left Agent Johnson and her small team of officers to their work.


	3. Chapter 3: Voices In The Dark

**Note: **I'm sorry about this huge delay -- I'm a college student and final exams hit me like a sack of bricks. However, I have this chapter and the next one all done, so I hope to update every Monday weekly now that summer is almost upon me. =) I hope you enjoy it!

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**CHAPTER THREE:** Voices In The Dark

The journey to the police station was one of the most uncomfortable car rides Yugi Mutou had ever experienced.

Directly to his right was Seto Kaiba, who was glaring out the window with such intensity that Yugi thought he was going to set the street on fire through pure willpower.

On his left was the American Tamara Johnson, who volunteered to escort the two teenagers to the interrogation room after witnessing Yamado Taro's corpse within Seto's vault. Seeing as both individuals in the car seemed to positively detest each other, Yugi was left answering the brunt of the agent's questions.

The first question was undeniably the most difficult to answer.

"So why were you at the corporation in the first place, Yugi?"

_What do I say?_ Yugi thought to himself, biting his lower lip in thought. _I could lie…and say that I was just visiting Kaiba, but anyone who's been in Domino before must know that Kaiba and I aren't exactly best friends… what do I say?_

"Well, Miss – er, Agent—"

"You can call me Tamara," the woman interrupted, smiling slightly in Yugi's direction. The teenager immediately felt at ease; it was much easier to talk to a police officer when they weren't glowering at you. "It'll be much easier to get what we need to get done that way, without all of the pretentious titles. 'Agent Tamara Johnson' is such a mouthful."

"It is," Yugi agreed, grinning slightly at Tamara's suddenly informal attitude. "Thanks… I was at the corporation to visit Kaiba." _Which is the truth_, Yugi added silently. _Sort of…_

"But why were you visiting him?" Tamara pressed, apparently not satisfied with Yugi's brief answer. "It took my men a good twenty minutes to bypass Kaiba Corporation's security protocol… a civilian like you surely couldn't just walk through the—"

"I think we shouldn't say a word to you until we arrive at the police station," Seto growled from his corner of the vehicle. The teenager, with his legs crossed and his jaw line set into a firm line, looked nothing short of aggravated. "And this had better not take very long. I have to pick up my brother at school."

There was a long silence before Tamara spoke. When she did, her tone was full of disbelief. "Mr Kaiba, we just discovered the body of a dead man in a vault that only you can access," Tamara said, narrowing her icy blue eyes at Seto's apparent apathy towards the situation. "Surely your brother could be picked up by someone—"

"No."

"What do you mean _no_?" Tamara demanded, staring at Seto as if he had grown a third head. "A dead man was just found in your corporation! I would think this would be a matter of paramount importance to—"

"You misunderstand me. This is a matter of the utmost importance, but my brother is my priority, not your 'cops and robbers' game." Seto glanced over at the police officer with narrowed eyes; Yugi could almost see the anger radiating from his glare. "So if your little interview takes longer than thirty minutes, we'll have to postpone it for another day, as I'm going to pick up Mokuba whether you like it or not."

The car rolled to a stop before the Domino City Police Station, but no one in the car made any motion to get out of the vehicle. Tamara and Seto were glaring at each other with such intensity that Yugi thought (for the craziest instant) that there was going to be a fistfight.

"Maybe we should talk inside," Yugi said quickly, being the peaceful mediator. He nodded to the police station. "I bet we could get this done quickly, right, Kaiba? It's not that much to say… so let's just go in and get it over with, yeah?"

Seto said nothing in response, but to Yugi's immense relief, he uncrossed his legs to get out of the vehicle. It didn't go as smoothly as expected; the president of the Kaiba Corporation couldn't locate the door handle.

"Do you need help?" Tamara asked, already standing on the front steps of the Domino Police Station, one pale eyebrow raised in amusement.

Seto scowled through the window at the waiting police officer. Yugi covered his smile with a hand; the shorter boy was under the impression that Seto Kaiba didn't often have to open the car door himself. Resisting the urge to laugh, Yugi quickly followed Seto out, careful not to mention the duelist's blunder.

"Maybe you should try opening more doors for yourself." Tamara smirked slightly, turning on her heel to march up the stone steps before Seto could deliver his burning retort. "Follow me, boys. We'll try to have this done so Mr Kaiba can go about his business."

"I think I've found a person who aggravates me more than you do," Seto muttered under his breath, starting up the steps after the petite officer. "This is ridiculous."

"Well, she has a point," Yugi reasoned, walking into the air conditioned building with a slight sigh; the heat was stifling through his school uniform. "They did find a body in—"

"Shut up, Yugi."

Yugi cringed slightly; Seto had lost any and all pretense that the two of them were working together. He idly wondered to himself whether or not the police were _actually_ going to accuse Seto of anything; after all, Seto Kaiba was one of the most powerful individuals in Domino City and it wasn't like he would actually hurt anyone…

_He's hurt people before, aibou, even if the police haven't realized it_.

Yugi winced involuntarily, causing both Tamara and Seto to look at him in slight confusion. _Hush, Yami_, Yugi commanded, following the police officer and his rival down a relatively barren hallway. _You can't just talk to me like that; people are going to think I'm crazy if I accidentally talk back!_

_My apologies_. It didn't sound to Yugi that the Pharaoh residing within him sounded all that sorry. In fact, he sounded rather amused.

"Here, you'll wait here." Tamara pointed to a row of chairs outside of a room labeled 'Holding Room 1'. "We'll interview Mr Kaiba first, Yugi, if you don't mind, seeing as he has a prior engagement." The last two words spoken by the federal agent were dripping with sarcasm. "We'll try and get you both in and out of here as soon as possible."

Seto glanced down at Yugi as if to ask if that was reasonable. The shorter duelist shrugged and sat down.

Tamara smiled slightly in Yugi's direction. "Good. After me, Mr Kaiba. My partner and I have a few questions to ask you, if you don't mind…"

"I live to serve," Seto muttered, sweeping past the petite woman into Holding Room 1. "Let's make this quick. I have other things to do."

The door closed with a snap and low voices immediately snuck out from underneath the doorframe… the interrogation had begun and while Yugi was relieved the law enforcement was taking control of the situation, he couldn't help but feel a little anxious and impatient of how long it seemed to be taking.

Yugi glanced up and down the hall and sighed, sinking a little lower into his seat. Tendrils of worry were beginning to wrap around his stomach… he hadn't spoken to his grandfather since that morning, which seemed ages ago. What if he had been hurt in the ransacking of his game shop? Worse still, what if the reason why his grandfather's room was untouched was because they had already taken his grandfather away, determined to figure out where the Millennium Puzzle – if that's that the thief actually wanted – was and where his grandson was located?

He immediately dug around in his coat pocket for his cell phone, thanking Anzu silently for forcing the teenager to get one after their mishaps during Battle City. A quick phone call to assure his friends and family he was okay wouldn't be any trouble at all… Yugi withdrew his cell phone from his pocket and quickly began to dial the familiar numbers.

Footsteps from down the hall caused the teenager to hesitate before pressing the 'send' button. He looked down the long hallway, but to his surprise, it was completely empty.

"Hello?" Yugi called down the hall, blinking. He was certain he heard footsteps just down the hall, but there was no sign of a person. In fact, the only sounds he now heard were Seto and Tamara speaking from within the holding room just behind him. The skin on the back of his neck prickled; for some reason, Yugi felt as if someone was watching him. "Is there anyone there?"

Silence.

He looked down at his cell phone, which still had his grandfather's number entered into it. "I'm being silly," Yugi said to himself, shaking his head a little. "I'm in a police station, what's going to harm me here?"

_Don't call your grandfather_.

Yugi's fingers slipped and his cell phone fell to the ground with a loud clatter, for the voice that echoed inside his head did not belong to his spirit partner, but to someone entirely different. A sudden sense of foreboding overcame the teenager and he stood up abruptly, suddenly panicked.

The last time he had heard a strange voice inside his head, it had belonged to a possessed Malik Ishtal within the Shadow Realm. This, however, sounded nothing like Yami Malik or any other of the evil villains he had faced before in his journeys… it sounded almost desperate.

"What was that?" Yugi whispered to himself, his fingers curled into fists. "What should I do?"

The teenager didn't have much time to contemplate his possible actions, as the door to Holding Room 1 swung open as soon as the words escaped from Yugi's lips. The teenager looked over his shoulder to find Tamara Johnson behind him, looking mildly concerned with the teenager's nervous appearance.

"Are you okay, Yugi?" Tamara asked, her pale eyes flickering down slightly to the Millennium Puzzle, which was glowing slightly; Yami Yugi was attempting to take control to investigate the hall, but Yugi fought him off quickly. "It's your turn, but we can ask you again later if you're not feeling well…"

"No, I'm fine," Yugi said quickly, stooping to pick up his cell phone from the dusty carpet of the police station. "Let's just get this over with. I… just thought I heard something, that's all."

"Heard something?" Tamara repeated. "Like what?"

Yugi forced a smile. _She'll think I'm cracking up,_ Yugi thought to himself. _I'm hearing voices and…I'm just being paranoid. Right? Right… _"I'm just being paranoid. Let's go."

Tamara held the door open for Yugi, watching him carefully as he sat down in an uncomfortable orange plastic chair. She closed the door softly behind her and sat down in front of him, folding her hands neatly. In the corner stood a rather severe woman, whose lips were pressed into a very thin line.

"This is my partner, Masaki Honto," Tamara introduced, waving a small hand towards Officer Honto, who nodded curtly to Yugi. "She's my contact in Domino City. She's in charge of the murder of Hanako and now, I guess, her husband Taro. Did you know them?"

Yugi shook his head slightly. "No… but I have a question before we start. Where did Kaiba go?"

Tamara smiled slightly. "I showed him the backdoor. The press has arrived on our doorstep, unfortunately. Seto Kaiba attracts the dogs of Domino, as it were, and he preferred his privacy over a bit of the spotlight."

Yugi smiled a little. "That sounds like him… right. Well, what can I help you with?" His violet eyes glanced between the two women, who were both watching him rather carefully. "I mean, I can only tell you what I know… I was visiting Kaiba and he showed me what he had found. It's a lot to deal with by yourself, I guess," he added as an afterthought, flushing slightly as Tamara narrowed her blue eyes. _Would she buy it?_

"Kaiba showed us an interesting piece of parchment, Yugi… with a little riddle on it, concerning Pharaohs and numbers and whatnot. Would you know anything about that?" There was a layer of suspicion in the agent's tone that Yugi hadn't heard before; was she beginning to suspect _him_?

Yugi shrugged slightly, his mind racing. "Do I look like a Pharaoh to you?" he asked, grinning. "I don't really know what that's supposed to mean. Like I said, Kaiba just showed me the room." The teenager's heart was beating a mile a minute and he silently prayed that Tamara wouldn't notice. "But a lot of other stuff has happened too. I think my friend Jounouchi called the police about it, but someone broke into my house and stole a few things of mine."

Tamara stiffened slightly. "You had some things stolen? Like what?"

Yugi hesitated slightly before responding. "I have a gold box from Egypt that my grandfather gave me. He found it on one of his expeditions." He didn't mention that a picture of himself and his friends had gone missing as well; Yugi didn't want to freak himself out prematurely. "I guess it's worth a lot, but that was the only thing missing."

Tamara was silent for a moment. The only noise in the room was the sound of Tamara shuffling her papers. "We did receive a report about a missing gold box from a teenager. I imagine it was your friend Jounouchi." She glanced over her shoulder at Officer Honto hovering in the background, who surveyed Yugi with narrowed eyes.

"Why do you think the body was left in Kaiba Corporation in the first place?" Honto asked abruptly. Yugi shivered involuntarily; her voice sounded like nails grating a chalkboard.

"I don't know," Yugi murmured, casting his mind around for a better answer. It settled on a particularly ugly thought. "I don't think it has anything to really do with me…" _What a lie, Yugi… _"Do you think Kaiba is in danger?" he asked after a moment of silence.

Officer Honto didn't react, but Tamara forced a smile; it appeared to Yugi that she was hiding something. "Danger? The warning wasn't against him, Yugi… it was against a Pharaoh."

The spirit within Yugi stirred at the statement, but Yugi ignored Yami's sudden bout of interest in the interview. "Right," Yugi agreed, his lips turning into a slight smile. "A Pharaoh… whatever that means." His stomach squirmed slightly; Tamara's eyes were lingering on his Puzzle a little longer than the duelist would've liked. "Is there anything else you want to ask me?" Yugi asked abruptly. "I should call my grandfather…"

Tamara's smile grew into a natural grin. "Certainly, Yugi, that's all. I'll show you the way out." The woman got up, her chair scraping slightly against the rough carpet. "Follow me, will you? I'll have a car drive you home…Officer Masika can supervise you, seeing as I don't think you have a private chauffeur."

_Don't get in the car, Pharaoh!_

Yugi's chair tipped h backwards as the teenager leapt to his feet, his adrenaline pumping through his veins as the mysterious voice echoed inside his head again. "What was that?" Yugi demanded, spinning on his heel to face the door. It had sounded like the man – at least he _thought_ it was a man – was right behind him… but that was impossible! The door was closed and locked, just as it had been since the interrogation had begun…

"What was what?" Tamara sounded alarmed; Yugi was breathing heavily from fright. "Yugi? Are you okay?"

"That voice—"

_Aibou,_ Yami interrupted through their telepathic link, causing the teenager to stop talking abruptly. _They can't hear what you and I hear… we need to investigate further. If you continue, they'll think you're out of your mind and we can't have that. Calm down and relax._

"What voice?" Tamara asked warily.

"Nothing," Yugi muttered, folding his arms over the heavy chain of his Millennium Puzzle almost protectively; he felt almost certain he was cracking up. "I'm just being paranoid, I guess." _What should I do?_

_I feel this voice… I don't feel any dark energy anywhere nearby_. His spirit partner was quiet for a moment before continuing. _I would walk home. I can protect you if anything dangerous happens, I promise you._

"I'll walk home, if you don't mind. I have to make a few errands," Yugi responded, smiling slightly to Tamara. "I think I need the fresh air anyway. Long day, you know?"

"Understandable," Tamara said somewhat reluctantly. She looked a little concerned to let the teenager walk home in the early evening. "How far away do you live? Are you absolutely sure you want to walk home?"

"I'd be more than happy to drive you home," Officer Honto said, her kind suggestion marred by her harsh tone. "It's no difficulty to me and the police station would be paying for the gasoline…" She paused, her grey eyes searching Yugi's violet ones. "If that's your concern," she added as an afterthought.

"It's okay," Yugi said quickly, backing up slightly to the door. "I think I'll just go. You have my home phone number if you need anything, right? Give me a call." He opened the door and stepped out into the barren hallway, closing the door quickly behind him. He glanced up and down the hallway before setting off, but not in the direction of the exit.

"Ready, Yami?" Yugi whispered, stopping suddenly once he was a suitable distance away from Holding Room 1. "I think it's time to investigate a little further into what's following us around…"

There was no verbal response, but the Millennium Puzzle glowed brilliantly and Yugi felt his spirit partner gently take control of his body. The door of his soul room closed as the door just across from it, covered in withered vines and ancient rust, pried itself open, releasing the spirit within into the physical world.

The ancient Pharaoh of Egypt took a deep breath before opening his eyes to glare down the hallway. "I believe we need to find the source of those footsteps, Yugi," Yami murmured, setting off down the hall at a brisk pace. "I felt something wrong earlier, something I've never felt before… and that voice is reaching out to us unlike anything else we've ever felt before."

_Remember, Yami,_ Yugi cautioned as the Pharaoh glanced into open rooms and passed by closed interrogation holding cells. _Whoever put that body in Kaiba Corporation… looks like he's after you, and remember, my house was ransacked today! Someone is after us and if they find out we're going after them, then it won't be good!_

"I know," Yami responded aloud, pausing at the end of the hallway. He closed his hard violet eyes to concentrate, allowing the mysterious powers of the Millennium Puzzle to guide his way. He turned left, striding down the hall at a brisker pace. "And they have no idea who they are messing with…well see who wants to play a game with _me_."

_But do you really think whoever is talking to us is inside this police station? Do you even know where you're going?_ When the Pharaoh didn't answer, Yugi's sigh reverberated inside Yami's soul room. _Yami, we really need to think about this stuff. And I really think we should talk to Kaiba about this, he's just as involved in this mess as we are. And we don't even know the connection of the voice to the murders or to whoever stole that golden box._

"I have a feeling, Yugi," Yami muttered, stopping suddenly outside of a door near the end of the hallway he had turned down. "I have a really strong feeling that everything is interconnected… and we've only scratched the surface of this problem." His fingers brushed the handle of the door he had stopped in front of; his stomach was clenched tightly with sudden paranoia.

_What's wrong? _Yugi asked, his voice laced with concern.

The spirit didn't answer. Instead, Yami curled his fingers around the handle and pushed down with all his might, yanking the door open towards him in one fluid motion. What he expected to see, the Pharaoh wasn't entirely sure, but the feeling of wariness tripled as the room became visible. The hazy florescent lights gave Yami a helping hand in seeing what was in the room.

It was a broom closet.

Yami brushed aside the janitorial equipment with a hand, frowning slightly in confusion as the paranoia abruptly abated him. For the barest split second, he thought he saw a faint shadow hidden among the brooms and mops, a tall male figure with nothing extraordinary about their figure but his brilliant blue eys.

"Nothing but a specter in the shadows," Yami said to himself, allowing a mop to fall across the closet with a soft thump. "It may be time to take our leave, Yugi, and take your advice… I think we need to talk to Kaiba."


	4. Chapter 4: The Letter M

**Note:** So much for updating every Monday, right?

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**CHAPTER FOUR**: The Letter M

The interview only lasted about thirty minutes, leaving Seto plenty of time to pick up his younger brother from his weekly Capsule Monsters club practice. His version of the tale had been rather brief: Seto had noticed a disturbance in his private vault on the security cameras and had decided to check it out. When he arrived, he had seen the dead body and called the police. Absolutely everything checked out and Seto was free to go.

He had a sneaking suspicion Tamara had informed her colleague (a much more severe woman by the last name of Honto; Seto hadn't paid attention to her first name) that he had to leave at a specific time, in order to avoid complications. As such, it was in slightly better spirits that the duelist took his leave.

The billionaire left the police station as quickly as possible, choosing to utilize the back door instead of walking out of the very public main entrance. The press had arrived as soon as they had discovered Seto Kaiba had been taken in for questioning and while Seto wasn't camera shy by any means, he didn't feel like feeding the dogs that day.

The drive to Mokuba's school seemed to take longer than usual; maybe it was the day Seto was having or perhaps the traffic was just unusually bad, but the fifteen minute drive seemed to take at least three hours. When the black car pulled in front of Mokuba's school at precisely four thirty, Seto breathed a slight sigh of relief; he knew it was paranoid and overprotective of him, but he couldn't help but feel a massive sense of relief when he saw Mokuba was already waiting outside.

"You're a little late, Niisama," Mokuba pointed out as he tossed his backpack unceremoniously into the backseat of the car. "I've been outside for ten minutes."

Seto glanced at the car clock in front of him. 4:31 PM. "I guess I am," Seto admitted, causing his younger brother to smirk in triumph at his older brother's defeat, "but only by a minute. Maybe you shouldn't have waited outside so early for me."

"I always get out early, you know that." Mokuba closed the car door behind him and looked up at his older brother somewhat curiously. "You're usually outside by now," he added, looking out the window as the car pulled away from his school. "Busy day?"

Seto cringed inwardly before nodding briefly; he recognized that look. It was the look that always preceded a long and exhausting argument where Mokuba (almost) always wound up the victor.

It was only a matter of time before the epic battle began.

"I watched the news today during lunch," Mokuba began abruptly, turning his grey eyes on his brother with slight suspicion.

"That's good," Seto replied absently, his blue eyes fixated on the streetlights going past them at an increasing speed. He wanted to get to the manor as quickly as possible. "What's going on in the world today?"

"Nothing really important…" Mokuba played with a keychain on his backpack as he thought about what he had seen on the news that day. "The American war isn't going all that well, something about the economy, new presidents—"

"Sounds like a pretty average day of global politics and economics," Seto said, glancing down at Mokuba with a raised eyebrow. "What's so special about that, Mokuba?"

"Well, my teacher turned it to channel seven, you know, the news station we don't really watch a lot because you say it's biased and ridiculous and full of lies."

"That's not just channel seven, Mokuba, that's most of the sources of media in this country," Seto responded, smirking slightly at Mokuba's exasperated look, "but continue with your story. What exactly did you see on channel seven that was so important?"

Mokuba paused a moment, apparently for dramatic effect, for Seto waited a good two minutes for the boy to continue his story. "And they said that they found a mutilated torn up dead body in the secret vault of Seto Kaiba in the bottom of the Kaiba Corporation."

There was a long silence as Seto shifted somewhat uncomfortably under Mokuba's sudden determined glare. The eldest Kaiba brother knew where Mokuba had learned that penetrating glare and he wasn't too sure he was proud of passing it on.

"That wasn't necessary, Mokuba," Seto muttered, fingering his collar slightly to mess with the Kaiba Corporation logo that concealed a microphone. "Isono, we're on our way, ready the manor entrance so we can get inside as quickly as possible," Seto murmured into his collar. "I've had a difficult day and—"

"Why the hell is there a dead body in the Corporation and why didn't you tell me?" Mokuba interrupted, losing all innocent pretenses.

"Mokuba, I'm trying—" Seto began, but the newly minted teenager had apparently been sitting on this all day, as Mokuba immediately began on a tirade that could rival one of his brother's.

"Niisama, that could've been _you_!" Mokuba's voice rose unexpectedly and there was a distinct note of fear in the younger boy's tone. A sudden pang of guilt sank into Seto's stomach as Mokuba continued. "All they said was that there was a body found in Kaiba Corporation! In _your_ secret vault! I didn't even know you had a secret vault, Niisama, you could've been dead! I didn't know—"

Mokuba's voice suddenly dimmed as a soft breath caressed Seto's right ear. It vanished as suddenly as it appeared, but Seto was certain that he heard a familiar voice whispering in the backseat of the car.

_Calm the boy down before he bursts into tears, Kaiba, _the voice whispered urgently.

Seto's hand immediately flew to his right ear, but there was nothing there. The back of his neck prickled with the sense that he was being watched, but as Seto glanced around the car, he saw that there was nobody in the vehicle but himself, his little brother, and his chauffeur.

"Niisama, what's wrong?"

Mokuba's troubled voice brought Seto abruptly back to reality. He shook his head sharply and looked down at his younger brother, who was gripping Seto's forearm tightly.

"Niisama, what's wrong?" Mokuba repeated, watching his brother with a mixture of fear and confusion. He had never seen Seto look so shaken; the eldest Kaiba was pale, his blue eyes darting around the car as if he were looking someone who simply wasn't there.

"Nothing," Seto said finally, gently prying his brother's fingers from his arm; Mokuba was hanging on so tightly that his fingers were tingling slightly due to loss of blood circulation. "I thought I heard something, that's all." When Mokuba continued to look concerned, Seto added a dismissive wave of his left hand. "I'm fine, Mokuba. The police are working on the case. I just got out of talking with the people in charge of the case. Nobody is going to hurt you or me, do you understand me?"

"Yes, Niisama," Mokuba muttered, but the younger Kaiba still looked troubled as the jet black car pulled through the gates of the impressive Kaiba Manor.

Seto glanced down at his brother, frowning slightly at the lack of protest on the matter. It wasn't like Mokuba to simply let a matter drop, especially one of such great importance. "I promise, nobody is going to lay a finger on you," Seto said quietly, squeezing Mokuba's shoulder with a comforting hand in a rare moment of gentleness.

The younger boy smiled a little and shoved his older brother on the arm. "I know that, Niisama," Mokuba responded simply, shoving his shoulder against the car door to open it.

Seto shook his head slightly with a slight smile, following his younger brother up the rest of the driveway towards their home. "And how do you know that?" Seto asked, humoring the teenager as the two started up the steps of Kaiba Manor. "History isn't exactly on our side."

"Doesn't matter. If anyone tries anything, you'll just kick their ass." Mokuba shrugged slightly, ignoring Seto's look of disapproval at his lack of proper language.

"Where do you learn that language?" Seto muttered as he entered the security code into the keypad resting to the right of the massive oak doors. The light above the keypad turned from red to green and allowed the Kaiba brothers access into their massive mansion.

"From you," Mokuba retorted, racing in ahead of Seto in order to beat him to the refrigerator. "That's where I learn everything, Niisama. Maybe you're the bad influence, not…" The boy's voice trailed off as he entered the cavernous kitchen, presumably distracted by whatever the maid had bought the teenager for an after-school snack that day.

"Who?" Seto asked absently, glancing over the stack of personal mail that had been dropped unceremoniously on their dining room table. When he didn't receive an answer, he looked over his shoulder towards the archway that connected the dining room and the kitchen area. "Mokuba?"

"Niisama, I think you should come here." The younger Kaiba's voice trembled slightly, indicating some level of fear. "_Now_."

Seto immediately dropped the letter he was reading and crossed the room in under two seconds to stand in the archway of his kitchen. His blue eyes widened slightly as he took in the scene before him.

The massive window over the sink was shattered. The glass was scattered helter-skelter all over the black tiles of the kitchen, but as Seto quickly worked out the trajectory equations inside his head, he realized that whatever had been thrown through the window (_or whoever crashed through it,_ Seto thought grimly) must have landed directly on top of the kitchen island in the center of the room.

As the eldest Kaiba turned towards the direction of the broken glass, he noticed that there was a large scuff mark in the marble countertop, almost as if someone had thrown…

"A rock," Seto said out loud, breathing a slight sigh of relief as he circled the kitchen island and stooped to find – as he correctly guessed – a large black rock. "It's just a rock, Mokuba. Someone threw a rock through our window."

"But who could've gotten close enough to throw a rock through the window?" Mokuba demanded, at his brother's side in an instant. "I mean, you have the same number of goons outside our manor every single day!"

"They aren't _goons_, Mokuba, they're security, but regardless, you have a good point," Seto admitted, placing the rock on top of the island with a slight scowl. "And even if security hadn't caught the culprit, why didn't the security alarm go off?"

"You're the one that built it, not me," Mokuba reminded him, taking the rock off the counter with some curiosity. "It looks like a hunk of whatever they make the road out of – _ouch_!"

"What?" Seto asked, looking down at his younger brother sharply. "What is it?"

"The stupid rock—"Mokuba dropped the rock with a few choice words; one of the sharp edges of the stone had cut the boy's finger.

"Oh, for god's sake, Mokuba, don't _scare_ me like that – there are bandages in the bathroom, go clean it off," Seto muttered, stooping to pick up the rock again, but he hesitated – the chunk of asphalt had broken cleanly into two halves. "What…?"

"What is it?" Mokuba demanded, fixing the bleeding temporarily with a piece of paper towel.

"You broke the rock," Seto responded, picking up the two halves of asphalt with some curiosity. "A relatively clean break for just a roughly hewn piece of rock…"

"See if something is inside it, Niisama" Mokuba suggested, peering over his brother's arm curiously. "It looks like one of those geodes I saw at school…maybe there's diamonds inside!"

"Because we need the money," Seto muttered, his lips twitching into a slight smile. "I doubt there are diamonds inside a piece of thrown away asphalt… it was probably some idiot kid's idea of a practical – hold on a second."

"What?" Mokuba demanded eagerly.

Seto's thin fingers dug into the small crevice of the rock to remove a tightly rolled piece of papyrus tied with a dark green piece of thread. The paper itself was rather anticlimactic; in fact, it was hardly bigger than a paperclip. However, Seto's heartbeat immediately increased; it looked and felt like the same type of material the riddle he and Yugi discovered tethered to the apparent murder weapon found in his secret vault.

"Niisama, it's a letter!" Mokuba breathed with excitement.

"Call the police," Seto said quietly, staring at the piece of papyrus in his hands in mild astonishment.

"Open it first!"

"_Mokuba—_"

"Niisama!"

A sneaking sense of morbid curiosity brushed aside Seto's fear and logic with relative ease. With slightly shaking fingers, he undid the piece of green thread and unfurled the piece of papyrus onto the table. He squinted slightly, for the handwriting on the paper was small and crimped, as if the person was attempting to write quite a lot without very much time.

"What does it say?" Mokuba whispered, almost afraid that if he spoke too loudly, the delicate papyrus would disintegrate.

"It's a map," Seto said after a moment, a note of surprise in his tone.

"A _map_?" Mokuba couldn't contain the excitement in his tone. "To what?"

"I'm not entirely sure… but it definitely looks like a map."

True to Seto's assumption, the piece of paper held an extremely small map. On one side of the papyrus were thin lines and symbols drawing out what appeared to be a city. On the other contained tiny Egyptian hieroglyphs, which Seto only recognized from his short time in the ancient Egyptian exhibit with Ishizu Ishtal. While Seto was mildly relieved the letter didn't hold another death sentence (or, at least, not one he could immediately read), he couldn't help but feel a tiny fist of frustration curling around his throat.

_Why was he still getting involved in this?_

Seto soon became lost in his thoughts, drowning in a world of ancient Egyptian symbols, artifacts, and at the center of the massive hurricane, two giant slabs that had changed his life forever. When was this madness going to stop? The dead body, the mysterious warning against the spirit he _had_ to acknowledge as true that resided within the Millennium Puzzle… all of the events seemed to create an invisible thread that connected Seto and Yugi together once more.

He curled his fingers around the thin papyrus with a sudden growl of frustration. "This isn't about ghosts and specters," Seto muttered to himself. "Ghosts don't kill people, Seto, get a grip."

"Niisama?" While Seto had taken the time to collect his thoughts, his younger brother had left his side. By the time the eldest Kaiba had noticed, Mokuba had already entered the living room, where the vice president of the Kaiba Corporation yelled in surprise for the second time that day.

"What, Mokuba?" Seto called, staring down at the note with a renewed intensity. _I have to figure out what is going on before anyone else gets hurt, including Mokuba,_ Seto thought to himself with determination.

"Niisama – man, I thought I heard something – Niisama, come look! Quick! On the news!"

By the time Seto entered his cavernous living room, Mokuba perched precariously on the edge of an armchair, looking as if he was ready to start running as soon as someone gave the word. Seto took a seat in the armchair itself, his blue eyes focusing on the massive plasma television screen mounted on the wall before them.

The television screen showed a rather frazzled looking reporter standing in front of an image of the center of Domino City. Seto immediately recognized the image as a simple stock photo plastered onto a green screen; Kaiba Corporation, which was standing directly behind the young woman, was currently closed to visitors. On camera, people were entering in and out of the building freely.

"This is Ichiko Orimi for Channel 3, Domino City." The woman brushed her thin black hair out of her eyes, focusing directly on the camera. "Breaking news about the serial killer within our very own city—"

"Serial killer?" Seto interrupted, scowling angrily at the television. "Hardly. They can't even prove whether or not the two are connected forensically, the curator didn't even have a definite cause of death!"

"Shh, Niisama!" Mokuba commanded, his grey eyes fixated on the television screen. The image had switched from Ichiko Orimi to another woman, a plumper figure set behind a desk, who was holding a piece of paper that looked eerily familiar to the map that Seto and Mokuba had just been delivered.

"As Ichiko Orimi just reported, we have just received a letter from a person only known as "M' claiming responsibility for the two brutal murders that have taken place in Domino City this week." The woman shook the piece of paper empathically, as if to show off the importance of the article before her captivated audience. "The letter, which was delivered anonymously, claims that there are more deaths to come should someone – codename "Pharaoh" – refuse to step forward and confess to the crimes he has committed." The woman took a deep breath, her gaze now troubled; it was clear to Seto that she was uncomfortable reading this out loud. "The letter's author has also announced that their next death will take place tonight at exactly midnight at an undisclosed location."

Seto and Mokuba glanced at one another.

"Ichiko, standing outside of the Kaiba Corporation, has more to report," the woman behind the desk finished, placing the papers in front of her with a forced smile.

The image immediately flashed back to Ichiko Orimi, who looked tense. "As we reported earlier, the president of the Kaiba Corporation, Seto Kaiba, was brought in for questioning concerning the murder of Taro Yamado, who was found within his private vault—"

"_What_?" Seto burst out, glaring angrily at the television screen. "How in the hell does Channel 3 know about that? Aren't the police doing their _job_? This is absurd!"

"—it is reported that the Domino City police department have several federal agents involved, including a member of the American Federal Bureau of Investigation—"

"The FBI is here?" Mokuba asked Seto incredulously. "I know it's a big deal and all, but why do the Americans care if two people have died? Murders happen in their country all the time and we don't get involved!"

While Seto didn't respond, his younger brother – as he always did – had pointed out something that had bothered Seto since he had entered the police department for questioning. Why _did_ the Americans care?

"—in hopes that they can catch this murderous psychopath. The police are uncertain of whether or not this threat is legitimate and we will be reporting alongside the police force every step of the way. This is Ichiko Orimi, reporting live from Domino City," the reporter finished, flashing a trademark dazzling smile at the Kaiba brothers.

"God help us all," Seto muttered, reaching for the remote on the coffee table to turn off the television. "This is turning into a complete circus."

"Do you think the letter is real?" Mokuba asked, watching his older brother remove the papyrus from his pocket to examine it once more. "And from the same person who sent us this? We should tell Yugi…"

"If Yugi is half the person I think he is, he already knows." Seto unfurled the papyrus slowly, frowning down at the mysterious hieroglyphs. "And he doesn't know how to read this… but I know someone who can."


End file.
